Wow. Last night, I broke my record. At around 10:00 I tested at 32. Then I drastically overtreated. I got up at 2 in the morning and tested at 378! I took a couple units of humalog, and this morning was all the way down to 325. Come on, body!

Had a stressful meeting at work today that went late, which meant lunch was late. Stress always makes my bg drop and it was a little on the lower side already, so I decided to take my insulin after eating. Except I forgot to take it. And now four hours later my bg is perfect. What the hell, body?

eek 32! We've had the meter say LO a few times.mollyjade-maybe you were low and lunch treated it? I never give my son insulin for cupcakes when we're at a crazy birthday party cause he always goes low. Always perfect numbers after. Otherwise, we obviously give him shots!

I was looking at the latest treatment guidelines by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (doesn't everyone?) and I noticed that they recommend a plant-based diet and getting most protein from low-saturated fat sources (eggs, fish, beans), but they also note "there is no need to avoid animal protein".

I was looking at the latest treatment guidelines by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (doesn't everyone?) and I noticed that they recommend a plant-based diet and getting most protein from low-saturated fat sources (eggs, fish, beans), but they also note "there is no need to avoid animal protein".

The ADA and I broke up over their unwillingness to recommend (or even acknowledge!) vegan or vegetarian diets.

I still remember my letter-writing fight with them about the time they said something like, "Rest assured, no one's suggesting you could live on less than 2 ounces of meat a day," or whatever it was.

I was looking at the latest treatment guidelines by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (doesn't everyone?) and I noticed that they recommend a plant-based diet and getting most protein from low-saturated fat sources (eggs, fish, beans), but they also note "there is no need to avoid animal protein".

The ADA and I broke up over their unwillingness to recommend (or even acknowledge!) vegan or vegetarian diets.

I still remember my letter-writing fight with them about the time they said something like, "Rest assured, no one's suggesting you could live on less than 2 ounces of meat a day," or whatever it was.

that's sad! I volunteered last year for the planning committee for their walk, my son was an ambassador. There's nothing now because of budget cuts.I'm sorta freaking out now because my daughter who does not have diabetes keeps getting yeast infections, which is one of the things that happened to my son before he was diagnosed.

Hey guys, remember me, with the housemate? Thanks for your advice back then.

I've popped back in for more. Well, I guess an update would be that I think he did go to the doctor to try to sort stuff out. Only problem is it hasn't.

I feel like I'm probably giving out too much personal medical information in this, but he still won't talk about it and we're the ones that have to deal with it all the time. We try to get him to drink something with sugar in it now if we catch him early, but if he can't drink it himself we obviously don't try to force him for fear of choking. I think we've probably had to call the ambulance about 5 or 6 times since I posted last.

So some background info. He is in his 30s, and has been rocking the type 1 for nearly 20 years. He also has an underactive thyroid. He is a pretty heavy drinker and doesn't eat regularly, The only time i've seen him cook is his egg and bacon pie. The rest of the time he eats out or gets pizza.

As I'm the only one in the house that doesn't freak out when he goes hypo I'm the one that always deals with it.

So, I guess my questions are:1. Is drinking making this worse (usually the morning after, which is every morning) or is it more that lack of proper eating that is caused by the drinking?

2. Every time this happens it is because he's gone hypo. How do I know if this is what's happening without measuring it? Is giving him sugar always the best thing to do? (I know that I can't know without measuring it/sugar isn't always good, but I thought I'd ask for further info?)

3. Is this something that happens sometimes, or is it his fault? The last thing I want to do is get all judgmental, but should we even have to be dealing with this?

4. So I know if he goes untreated he can go into a coma and die. But what happens when no one is around, it must have happened before, can you recover by yourself if you're lucky?

Thanks. I'll look into it myself, but I trust you guys more than random internets. And since he doesn't talk about it I can't really trust him to give me answers either.

Low blood sugar is immediately dangerous, high blood sugar is dangerous in the long term. So yes, giving sugar is the best thing to do. If you don't feel comfortable, call an ambulance. It's expensive, but it's really not fair to put this kind of responsibility on roommates.

It's hard to say exactly what's causing this, and your friend may not know. Some people lose the ability to feel their blood sugar go low (hypoglycemia unawareness), so they don't catch low blood sugars until they get extremely low. That could be an issue.

Drinking alcohol lowers your blood sugar for up to 12 hours, so yes, it's possible that's part of the problem in the morning. People with diabetes can drink, BUT it's irresponsible to continue drinking like this when he's having such serious problems. If I'm having even minor problems with my blood sugars (and things are constantly changing and needing to be adjusted, no matter what you do), the first thing I do is cut out all acohol. It adds an extra layer of complexity, and makes it hard to make medication adjustments. At the very least, if he's drinking he needs to eat something at the same time and test his blood sugar frequently, setting an alarm in the middle of the night to test if need be.

The body can often recover on its own from a low blood sugar, but not always. So it's important to always treat it, since we can't predict in which cases the body will release its own sugar and which cases it won't. One of the problems with drinking alcohol when you have diabetes is that your liver may not release sugar when needed because it's busy detoxing alcohol.

This sounds like a drinking problem to me. His drinking is putting his life in danger. It's putting the responsibility for life and death decisions on roommates, and he must have racked up thousands of dollars in ambulance bills. And yet he's still drinking. That's not a healthy way to deal.

This sounds like a drinking problem to me. His drinking is putting his life in danger . . . And yet he's still drinking. That's not a healthy way to deal.

He is also a pretty big stoner. I've never seen him massively smashed, just a bit of slurred speech/stumbling etc. But we've also noticed things like bottles of alcohol going missing, or being empty randomly. If this isn't him, then it would be his friend, but I guess that's another matter. I think we could deal with any of these problems on their own, but together they're getting a bit much.

Oh and here you can pay a relatively small ambulance membership fee, which covers you for the year. He doesn't usually like us calling them, but at that point he's usually beyond making rational decisions so I've told everyone to call one anyway, despite what he might say.

This sounds like a drinking problem to me. His drinking is putting his life in danger . . . And yet he's still drinking. That's not a healthy way to deal.

He is also a pretty big stoner. I've never seen him massively smashed, just a bit of slurred speech/stumbling etc. But we've also noticed things like bottles of alcohol going missing, or being empty randomly. If this isn't him, then it would be his friend, but I guess that's another matter. I think we could deal with any of these problems on their own, but together they're getting a bit much.

Oh and here you can pay a relatively small ambulance membership fee, which covers you for the year. He doesn't usually like us calling them, but at that point he's usually beyond making rational decisions so I've told everyone to call one anyway, despite what he might say.

2. Every time this happens it is because he's gone hypo. How do I know if this is what's happening without measuring it? Is giving him sugar always the best thing to do? (I know that I can't know without measuring it/sugar isn't always good, but I thought I'd ask for further info?)

Can you find out where he keeps his BG monitor? Does he have one right now? If you can find out where that is, you can check his blood sugar. One thing that might be a problem with getting him to just drink anything, is that his blood sugar could shoot up a lot after that. The rule of thumb (and correct me if I'm wrong you guys) is to give 15g of carbohydrates and the recheck his blood sugar after 15 minutes. If it's still low, give another 15g of carbs. That's about 4 oz of orange juice. You could also go to the drug store and buy glucose tablets, and give him however many of those equal 15g.

This book is cheap on amazon, and it's really good. It's written for parents of newly diagnosed diabetic children, so it's written in a way that is easy to understand. If you want to understand more about what is going on with your roommate, you should check it out.

Ultimately, it's up to him to take care of himself, but this sounds like serious business if you're having to call the ambulance. Does he have any family you could contact and tell them what's happening? He sounds like he really needs help. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0044K ... G1XC7XKW2S

_________________I am not a troll. I am TELLING YOU THE ******GOD'S TRUTH****** AND YOU JUST DON'T WANT THE HEAR IT DO YOU?

Can you find out where he keeps his BG monitor? Does he have one right now? If you can find out where that is, you can check his blood sugar. One thing that might be a problem with getting him to just drink anything, is that his blood sugar could shoot up a lot after that. The rule of thumb (and correct me if I'm wrong you guys) is to give 15g of carbohydrates and the recheck his blood sugar after 15 minutes. If it's still low, give another 15g of carbs. That's about 4 oz of orange juice. You could also go to the drug store and buy glucose tablets, and give him however many of those equal 15g.

I think if someone is out of it to the extent they can't help themselves, that giving more carbohydrate is fine. He might have high blood sugar later, but that's not immediately dangerous. And, I'm assuming he's awake enough to talk a bit and swallow. If he's completely passed out, call the ambulance immediately.

But again, this is completely out of line and shouldn't be your responsibility.

His family is in another country, only nz, but still, I have no contacts for anyone else. Thanks guys, I will try to work out an appropriate amount of carbs. The paramedics always have a different system going. Sometimes it's as much as you can get in him, sometimes it's just a little. Last time they really struggled because they couldn't get a line into his arm without harming himself/themselves.

I don't know if they exist in Australia, but here there are little tubes of gel icing that are good to use. There's no chewing or swallowing liquids. Just squirt onto the inside of his cheek. And since they're small sized, it's hard to give too much or too little.